A Long Trek Home
by AtrumVenator
Summary: The Wasteland is no place for idiots. Unfortunately, that exactly what Nick finds in the middle of Indiana, during a visit to the Mid-Western Brotherhood, can he help her find her way?
1. Jesus! Girl, are you stupid?

Prologue: Jesus! Girl, are you stupid?

The girl was alone, she wasn't carrying any weapons, and it seemed like she didn't have any supplies on her. And, she was wearing a vault uniform. A blood spattered vault uniform. A silver-clad figure watched her through the scope of an old yet still very powerful Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle. She was at least a half mile away, yet the man could even read the vault number that was emblazoned on the back of her outfit.

_38. Interesting, _he thought, _that means she's from a Mid-western vault probably out of Ohio or Indiana or some place like that. _

As he was brooding over this fact, he spotted a very fast and very large thing racing towards the girl.

_Shit! Shit! Shit! Deathclaw!_

He was good and highly accurate with a sniper rifle, but at more than 1000 yards, it was really anyone's game. The slightest wind could send the bullet off course and away from the killer Deathclaw, or straight into the girl. Not that there was much wind in the Wasteland anyway, but one can never be sure what radiation induced anomalies could show up. The man considered all of this in about .5 seconds, then he fired.

* * *

The girl was defenseless, and she knew it. She'd just figured that traveling in such a wide open area, she'd be able to outrun anythnig that seemed alittle dangerous, after all she had been the fastest person in Vault 38. She had just gotten enough supplies from the Pitt to continue on to the capital Wasteland, and the evenutally south towards the Commonwealth. She was hoping for a job in engineering or science. If she even made it that far. She heard rapidly approaching footfall behind her. She quickly turned to see a very massive creature hurtling towards her at an absurd speed. She had nowhere to run or hide. In midstride it raised one massive claw and leapt towards her. A milisecond before its claw ripped her to shreds, the gigantic Deathclaw exploded, and it was knocked sideways with such force that it flew to the side of her and land in a pile on the ground. At that point she fainted.

* * *

The man was shocked at the size of the Deathclaw. At twenty-two years old, and being out in the Wasteland alone, for the past three years, he had seen almost everything under the sun. But, this was the first time that he had been west of the Pitt, and he had no idea that the Deathclaws were not only bigger, they had fur. The girl was finally coming around and she seemed to be okay, just shocked. She finally sat up and looked around, blinking and very much confused. She was extremely beautiful as well.

"Is this heaven," she asked, not believeing that she was still alive, "It looks like the same shithole where I died."

"It's not heaven and it is the same shithole and you're not dead."

"Oh, well I guess I've got to be going now, thanks." She was very ungrateful, even though he had just saved her life.

"Where are you headed?" He was curious what a teenage girl was doing out, alone, in the Wasteland.

"The Capital Wasteland, and then the Commonwealth." The man was confused, since she was out in the middle of the Mid-West and she was walking all the way to the East Coast.

"You do know you're in the middle of Indiana, don't you?"

"What?"

"This is the Mid-West, your over a thousand miles from the East Coast."

"No, I'm between the Pitt and D.C."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am."

"Okay fine, how long has it been since you left the Pitt?"

"I don't know, two weeks."

"Yeah, it doesn't take that long to get the Capital Wasteland."

"Cause you would know?"

"I would, that's where I'm from. In fact I can show you that your wrong. Look here." He showed her the Pip-Boy that his armor concealed. He pulled up the compass on the screen. "Look, this is the direction you were walking, see it says West, the other way, where I came from is East."

The knowledge that she had been going in the wrong direction for two weeks floored her, and abruptly she sat down on the ground and cried.

"Jesus! Girl, are you stupid? You can't travel alone in the Wasteland with no weapons and expect everything to work out ok. My best guess would be that you went to the Pitt, got some supplies and then took whatever damn directions they gave you. They were probably going to go out and capture you once you left the city, but something stopped them, maybe trogs or maybe something worse, who knows. It doesn't matter in any case, because you're here now and you're in my care. I'll get you to the Capital Wasteland, okay?"

During his entire monologue the girl had been quietly sobbing. Now she stopped. "Okay."

"Cool." He was silently bemoaning his kindness, she seemed like she was going to be a handful.

"Wait."

"What now?"

"Introductions. I'm Alexandra. And you are?"

He broke into a smile behind the armored faceplate, "I'm Nick, better known as the Lone Wanderer."

* * *

**AN: Thanks to James who pointed out that the Vault number should actually be in the high thirties to forties.**


	2. Vault 38

**AN: To clarify, this takes place in the Mid-West, where Fallout Tactics took place, but it is during the Fallout 3 timeline, a little after Broken Steel.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Vault 39

"So, where is Vault 38, Alexandra?" They were making camp after a few hours of walking since Nick had saved Alexandra's life. They were sitting inside a cave, that Nick had throughly checked for creatures before stopping. They were currently roasting some of those creatures. Nick had removed his armor and was now dressed in jeans and a Tunnel Snakes jacket. Nick had also given Alexandra some new clothes, to replace the vault ones that identified her as being vunerable and useless, though in the Wasteland, that was how women were thought of in general. Had she not managed to survive two weeks in the harsh Mid-West, which was crawling with Deathclaws, Nick would have assumed the same about her also. As it was, he had surmised that she was made of tougher stuff.

"I'm Alexa, and its in Columbus." She wasn't upset by the memory of her old Vault, which to Nick meant that it had been left willingly.

"Ah, was it a nice place?" Nick was trying to figure out what had made the girl leave her Vault.

"Yes..... and no."

"Okay? Want to add to that?"

She sighed, "It's a long story."

Nick was beginning to lose patience, "Where in the middle of nowhere, the nearest civilization is at least two days walk from where we are, we have nothing but time."

"Well..... Fine. Vault 38 was one of the Vaults that wasn't designed to fail. It was to open after a hundred years and everyone would be free to stay or leave as they pleased. Unfortuanately, that didn't really work. The vault door jammed, and we later found out that it had been blocked by the bodies of dead people that had tried to flee into the Vault when it first closed. We counted that there were at least 4000 bodies holding the Vault door closed, at least we think there were.

"My life before we left the Vault isn't really that exciting, its what happened the day we left the Vault that is the real story. Vault 38 was built into what had been a military storage bunker that had been decommissioned, but never emptied. We were loaded down with enough weaponry to fight a small war. Anyway, 1 year ago a massive explosion ripped open our Vault door. Massive armor wearing figures came chrging through the door and began an attack. The Vault still had some of the old military security sytems in place, and the military had planned in case something like this happened. The Vault locked down and there was no way for the 'Enclave', as they called themselves to get in the rest of the Vault. In addition, massive ammounts of weaponry and robots that we hadn't knowned existed turned out of the walls.

"The Vault Dwellers grabbed as much of the weapons as possible and set up a defensive barrier to stop the assualt when it came. When the Enclave finally broke down the barrier they faced a well equiped, though ill-trained army. Losses on both sides were staggering, and most of the time neither side was able to gain any ground. It was mostly trench warfare with few exceptions of charges by one side or another that were systematically cut down by robots and weapons. The Enclave even unleashed Deathclaws into the Vault and those were also cut down in a matter of minutes. Then, just when it seemed like we were going to win the war, the Enclave found the Overseer's secret passge, and suddenly our forces were under attack from two sides. All hope seemed lost.

"I'm going to stop now with that part of the story to give a little background on the city in which the Vault had been built. Columbus was one of the most prosperous towns in what was once Ohio. It contained the prestigous and massive Ohio State University, which had refused to change its name even after the renaming of the land the be the East-Central Commonwealth. Most of Columbus had been spared because it had contained few large factories and that fact that it was the home of one of the U.S.'s most important Air Force bases had been over looked. The univeristy thus had been mostly spared and many of the residents had become sentient and only partially rotted ghouls. They had become one of the most powerfuls groups in the area. Eventually the Mid-Western Brotherhood of Steel had come to exist and they set up a regional base in the University. They helped the powerful ghouls develope and produce new weapons and technologies, and they also protected the city of Columbus which had sprung anew from all of the university students as well as the others who had been able to survive the massive ammounts of radiation which rained down on the land.

"This where my story comes in. The long drawn out battle with the Enclave had attracted the attention of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood decimated the Enclave forces from the rear and suddenly that battle took a sharp in our favor. The Enclave was defeated and the Deathclwas, some of which had been sentient, were realeased from captivity. During the two hundred years between the great war and our war with the Enclave the Ohio State University had continued teaching and had been one of the prime centers of learning in all of the former United States. After I left the Vault this is where I went to get an education. It was thankfully free and I studied engineering and physics.

"One day, a representative of the Commonwealth came to visit, they were looking for anyone interested in working in a high science, high tech, environment. I accepted the offer and I was given directions on how to reach the Commonwealth from Rivet City in the Capital Wasteland. So I left Columbus and headed towards the Pitt. Everything you said about me atfer that, was true. And now I'm here."

Alexa's story had taken a little over three hours to tell judging by Nick's Pip-Boy 3000 clock.

Nick thought for a few moments on this, he had passed thorugh Columbus a week ago and it had been completely ruined, Ohio State University wasn't even there anymore. But, from there he directed himself towards Chicago, the headquarters of the Mid-Western Brotherhood. This was still where he intended to go.

Finally after a few minutes of intense silence, he lied, "Alexa, that's amazing, that your people were able to fend off and eventually defeat an Enclave force," She blushed even though his praise was not directed at her, then he said, "I'm going to take first watch, get some sleep, tomorrow we head for Chicago."

"Wait a minute!" she exclaimed.

"Yes?" He patiently waited for the anger that was to come.

"You said you would take me to the Capital Wasteland," she hotly accused him.

"I did."

"But-"

He cut her off, " I said that and I meant it, but I'm on a mission to make peace with the Mid-Western Brotherhood Of Steel and that takes priority over you, I'm sorry."

She was stunned, "But... my.... at the..... I need it...... why?"

"The Mid-Western Brotherhood has many forces that are needed in the Capital Wasteland. The California Elders have finally given the go ahead to allow us to make peace with them and allow them to be offically a division of the Brotherhood of Steel. I was chosen to be the ambassador to them but it was determined that the we did not have enough resources to send bodyguards with me. So, I went alone. This mission takes priority over everything else, do you understand?"

She nodded.

"Good. Now get some sleep, long day tomorrow."

She nodded again and went off to go to bed further back in the cave. Nick donned his armor and sniper rifle, and stood motionless at the cave entrance. He reflected on the armor, which had served him well in the past. It was a set of T-51b armor that he had found while searching through a fort in the Capital Wasteland. He had another set that he got from the Anchorage simulation which he planned to give to Alexa after he had trained her in its use. _After all, everyone needs a good set of indestructible armor. But first, someone has some explaining to do._


	3. You Lied!

**AN: This chapter fixes all the inconsistencies in the story so far, trust me. Hopefully it won't cause any new ones, but the Fallout World is so large that what is and what isn't canon is very hard to discern.**

* * *

Chapter 3

You Lied

Nick shook Alexa awake. "Hey, time to get up."

She groaned and loooked out the cave, "It's not even light out yet."

"Yeah, but if we want to get anywhere before it gets to hot to travel, we need to leave now." Nick truend away and began to clean up the campsite

She groaned again and stood up, "What time is it?"

"Three A.M." He said, not pausing what he was doing

Alexa got angry very quickly, "What?! I've only been asleep for two hours, why are we leaving now."

Nick turned on her abruptly, "I already told you why were leaving now, we're in the middle of a fucking wasteland, and there's no major civilization for at least a hundred miles in any direction. So we're leaving now, because it just so happens that there is a very small town called Caldera that is only 50 miles away and we might be able to make it there in the next two days, if we haul ass. But, if you want to stay behind, fine by me."

Alexa did not reply and simply went about packing her things. 20 minutes later they were on their way.

* * *

**Three Hours Later  
Former Campsite**

The small team of armored warriors abruptly stopped. They had been tracking a very dangerous person for two weeks. This person had stolen a Vertibird and flown it east until it had broken down and the person had crashed. The Team knew for a fact that this person was unarmed though the Deathclaw body that they found not far from the campsite seemed to say otherwise. The person had left a very easy to follow trail and the team had thought for sure that today they would finally hit pay dirt. But no luck. They'd left at least three hours ago and with no clue as to which direction they were heading the team was lost. One member of the team, a young boy who had only been part of the elite tracking squad for a short time, motioned the captain over and pointed to the ground. There written in the dirt carelessly was the word "Chicago". Now they knew.

* * *

**Three hours North-North-West **

Alexa was still not fully awake but it seemed that Nick really didn't give a shit. They had walked in almost absolute silence for the past three hours. Alexa was confused as to why they were walking so early since it was a cold climate and it wasn't a desert and everyone knew that the Mid-West had been less afected by the falling bombs than most of the former U.S.A. _Why is he doing this? He must know that this is stupid, he has to know that this isn't a desert. _But, nonetheless she was grateful for his help, because she would have almost certainly not made it this far without him. They were climbing a large hill now. Nick reached the top of the hill first and stopped there. Alexa hurried to catch up to him because she thought that they were going to take a break. But, when she reached the top, she saw what made him stop. There spread out in front of them, was the former city of Indianapolis. In 2015, the CIA had moved their headquarters to Indianapolis, which had then been the largest city in the Mid-West. Unfortuanately, this had made it one of the top priority targets. As such, the city was riddled with craters, two nuclear powerplants that had run the massive city had been destroyed leaking radiation all over the city. The bombs theselves had destoryed the city to such an extent that yuo could very literally see the radiation that came baking off the buildings and the ground, and it all spelled one word, death. Nick knew that Mid-West towns and cities and never been particularly found of subway systems, preferring overpriced and under-used streetcar systems.

(**AN: If you live in Columbus you know this is exactly the kind of bureaucratic bullshit they would pull.)  
**

To Nick this only meant that there was no safe way to travel through the city. They would have to go around, and thanks to the size of the city it would take at least twelve hours, meaning that they probably wouldn't reach Caldera this night or the next.

Nick sighed an finally broke the three hour silence. "We're going to have to go around," Alexa thankfully, did not protest and simply nodded. "But, we should probably take a quick break here, also I have some questions I want to ask you."

Alexa again nodded and replied innocently, "What kind of questions?"

"Hmm, here's one. Why did you lie to me?"

Alexa looked surprised, though Nick wasn't buying it, "I didn't lie about my story." She got defensive very quickly.

"I never said anything about your story, but hey, thanks for hanging yourself. Anyway I know you lied because I know that Columbus is ruined. Yes there are some people living there, but the University you mentioned is pretty much gone. And, I know that the Brotherhood does not go out of its way to help people, at least not the California Brotherhood. Columbus was the home of a U.S. Air Force Refueling wing, which made it a prime target because it's a lot harder to fly a plane with no fuel. The Brotherhood would never setup an outpost in a city if there was chance for any technological gain from it. I don't think you've ever even been to Columbus. You seem to know a lot about the Enclave though. So, let's try this again." They began walking again. "And the short version this time."

"Fine. I'm from the Brotherhoo-"

"Wow, are you like a pathological liar? Try again."

"Okay. I'm really from a vault near Denver."

Nick stopped and pulled out a .44 Magnum and aimed it at her head. He sighed and said, "Look, either tell me the truth now, or I kill you."

Alexa was caught. "I'm really from the Enclave." She stopped and waited. With his free hand Nick motioned her to continue. "I stole this vault jumpsuit three days ago from some Vault near Springfield. I'm on the run from the Cailfornia Brotherhood of Steel."

"Now, see that I believe. But, where's your power armor?"

"It broke. I didn't want to be carrying around armor that didn't work so I ditched it, but then I had to find new clothes."

"And are you from Denver?"

"Yes. From nearby anyway."

"Why are you on the run?"

"I have something they want."

"Which is?"

"And why would I tell you?"

"Because you have a gun in your face."

"If I tell you, you'll kill me."

"Really? How do you know?"

"I just do."

Nick really didn't want to kill her, but if the Brotherhood had been following her since she left Denver, then whatever she had must be impotant. "You know what, you need me, I don't need you, and unlike you, I can actually resist some radiation and I would be okay with leaving you in that hellhole over there, so unless you want to die in the worst way possible, I suggest you tell me what you have."

Alexa pulled out a small piece of paper with a bunch of numbers written on it. "This."

Nick studied it for a moment before replying, "These look like orbital launch codes."

"They are." Nick studied them for a moment longer. Then he pulled out a lighter and set the paper on fire. Alexa grabbed for it and Nick shoved her away. "What the hell are you doing you bastard?"

Nick waited a moment longer until the paper was completely burned away, "There, now no one has them."

"But, I still do."

"You know at first I thought you were naive, then I thought you were a liar, now I think you're just stupid. I'm trying to give me a reason to not kill you and your making it much much worse."

"I'm sorry."

"So am I."

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, a bullet ricocheted off of his armor. "Shit! They must've followed us, we wasted too much time standing here. Move, Move! MOVE!" Alexa and Nick sprinted down the hill and out of the range of the Brotherhood sniper.

* * *

**A mile South-South-East**

"You get him Rawley?" The captain asked the sniper.

"Negative, sir. He's wearing power armor, the bullet ricocheted off, and now they know we're here."

"Damn. Alright men let's get our asses after them, and don't shoot the girl, she's far too valuble to lose."

"Yes sir!" The team answered in unison.

* * *

**Just outside Indianapolis**

Alexa and Nick were both breathing hard, they'd sprinted about half a mile without stopping. Nick was the first to catch his breath, "I think we should go through the city."

"What?! You said it yourself, the radiation is deadly!" She was nearly hysterical after the Brotherhood's attack.

"I said it, yes. It will kill us given enough and without treatment, but I've got RadAway and Rad-X. Trust me, it'll kill us a lot slower than a bullet to the head."

Nick's line of reasoning got through to Alexa. "So if we go through, will they?"

"Probably. They're after you and they know that it would take far too long to detour around the city when we could make much better time going straight through. We might be able to find a streetcar that still works, they were supposed to be solar powered. If it really came down to it, we would have a better shot fighting them off in the city than we would out in the open where they could take advantage of their greater numbers."

"Ok. Let's go."

"Ok." And with that they forged a temporary truce.

* * *

**Indianapolis**

The once properous city of Indianapolis was now a shattered wreck of its former self. The once magnificent skycrapers that had made it the jewel of the Mid-West were now skeletons with only their steels frames left behind. Feral Ghouls and Deathclaws owned the city, though they were in constant warfare with each other. The Deathclaws here were hairy Mid-Western Deathclaws and though they were sentient, they were not particualarly friendly to any outsiders, however few dared to venture through the radiated city. Super Mutants too were rampant in the inner city, though they had arrived much later than the Deathclaws and ghouls and thus had been unable to get much of a foothold. The Deathclaw nest was probably the biggest one ever found, as it was the Indianapolis International Speedway. Over 400 Deathclwas lived inside this raceway which had been filled to the brink during almost every Indianapolis 500. On the other side of town there was a large, though not the largest, feral ghoul nest in side one of the skyscrapers that had only been partially destroyed in the Great War. Some where between these two a group of Super Mutants had taken up residence though they were constantly having to move to avoid the Deathclaws strikes. The streets were still littered with cars that had yet to be destroyed and their still highly radioactive nuclear cores. A hellhole of the watseland, this was the place that Nick and Alexa now traveled through.

"Hey, what's that up there?" Alexa pointed skyward at a large rail that crossed most of the city. They had missed it because it tightly hugged the buildings that held it up. It seemed to be welded directly to the steel frame of skyscrapes, which would explain why it hadn't fallen.

"I'm not sure, I think it may be a monorail." As if in confirmation to this a train ran across the single rail and towards the other side of the city, "How can it still run? It's ancient."

Alexa was able to answer that question, "Monorails were designed to be almost indestructible, becasue they were generally up high and had to face the high winds that also plague skyscrapers. They run on what was known as an uberbattery, which consisted of a large ball of anti-matter that had very minute particles extracted out of it to provide power. One particle could power a monorail for a year. It was a genius of engineering, but it was extremely expensive. At least in the short term. Uber-batterys were very nearly matinence free. The cost of repairing and replaceing nuclear batterys would outpace the cost of an uber-battery after about 200 years."

"Wow. Why do you know that?" Nick was impressed.

"I'm an engineer for the Enclave, I have to know about these things." Alexa was annoyed at his ignorance.

"Fine. Can we use it?" The monorail was looking more and more like a safe way to get through the city.

"I suppose so. It might be dangerous."

"More dangerous than traveling through a highly radiated city?"

"I suppose not."

"Then let's go."


End file.
